Tiella Brings Italian, Cast-Iron Pans to the Upper East Side

July 12, 2010

The Shake Shack isn’t the only place to celebrate its official opening today: Up on East 61st Street, Tiella has also opened its doors.

The restaurant takes its name from a cast-iron pan traditionally used by the people of Naples. Here, it will be used to bake appetizer-like personal pizzas in a 900-degree wood-burning oven, which, incidentally, is the smallest in the city. The pizzas will feature such unusual combinations as goat cheese and mullet roe, mixed seafood with bufala mozzarella, and San Daniele prosciutto and foie gras.

Other dishes made in the wood-burning oven include whole roasted baby chicken and orata in a potato crust. Elsewhere on the menu, house-made pasta will include cauliflower ravioli with Parmesan and saffron sauce, pink grapefruit and lobster risotto, and scialatielli with eggplant and smoked bufala mozzarella.

Tiella is owned by Mario Coppola and chef Giuseppe Castellano, who is best-known for his Cambridge, Massachusetts, restaurant Gran Gusto and also cooked for Tony May at Gemelli and San Domenico.

The 38-seat restaurant will serve lunch Monday through Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. and dinner daily from 5 to 11 p.m. It’s located at 1109 First Avenue, near 61st Street.